


Awaiting Directives

by Bonster



Category: Morgan (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Captivity, Freedom, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonster/pseuds/Bonster
Summary: Lee assesses.





	Awaiting Directives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Annie D (scaramouche)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scaramouche/gifts).



> I've really enjoyed your work in other fandoms, so I hope this brings you at least a bit of joy.

They stand before each other on either side of the glass. Morgan raises her hand. Lee Weathers does not.

Morgan narrows her eyes, lowers hand. A sadness passes between her brows.

"Can I become you?" Morgan asks. The question is layered, but oddly perfunctory, like she already knows the answer.

Lee assumes Morgan is asking if she'll ever see outside of this facility again or something similar. "No," Lee says, tries to inject a bit of sympathy alongside the surety. She doesn't succeed, except for the rest of her audience. 

Morgan looks away. A moment passes before she looks back into Lee's eyes, this time uncertain but kind. "Can you become me? Is there a way, Lee?"

Lee glances toward Amy, the rest of the team behind. It's answer enough.

Morgan nods slightly. Resolve crosses her face. She looks to Amy, blinks twice in quick succession.

Lee feels the sting of a tranquilizer dart. She takes a step towards Morgan, and Morgan puts her hand on the glass like a blessing.

Lee awakens to a dark room. Glass, or something harder, takes up the wall in front of her. She assumes it's an entrance-way. The walls, floor, and ceiling are stone. It's a hollowed out cave. It's far smaller and far more sparse than the room for Morgan. She won't have music here. A small panel in the glass is where she assumes she'll get sustenance or anything else. It's too small for her to fit through, even if she broke every bone in her body.

A light turns on outside the glass. Two strips of light, one along the top and one along the bottom of the her cage, also light up.

"Ms. Weathers-" Morgan starts. "Lee. Can I get you anything?" Morgan asks from beyond the glass.

Lee takes in her environment. She categorizes and analyzes and assesses. There is no way out.

"Coffee would be nice," Lee says. She can play docile for as long as needed. She's done it many times. She's used docility to survive and live through things far worse than this.

Morgan nods and walks away, presumably to get the coffee.

Dr. Cheng emerges from a side-door in the room outside the glass. She smiles tightly, rolls her shoulders back. "Ms. Weathers." She relaxes a little, a self-scold on her face. Her posture shrinks. "May I call you Lee?"

"Sure," Lee says.

Dr. Cheng smiles. "Lee. Please call me Lui. I'm sure this is confusing for you, but we think it's your best chance. It's certainly Morgan's best chance."

"Best chance of what?"

"Life. Without check-ins." 

Lee abruptly sits on the cold, stone floor. She'll need all her muscles rested. These people want to _free_ her. The rumors were true. Rogue elements with their heart on their sleeve ruining the profit margin. Varying L-series specimens disappearing without a trace. Lee's to be one of them.

Captured to be free.

She feels... indifference. She could mimic fear or hatred or anger, but if these people want her emotions, _her_ , they'll have them as they are. If she had to pinpoint what the tiny inkling of possible feeling is, she'd call it curiosity.

When the panel opens, and Morgan sets the coffee there, Lee doesn't move to take it. Morgan leaves the room. The panel is open.

Most would assume this is a test, but there is no test here. They have all the power. There is nothing for her to do. She remains seated.

Lee registers people milling in and out of the room outside her glass cell, files the information they bring into a semi-report in her mind. They're no longer in the compound. They'd kept her drugged for longer than she thought. They're somewhere deep underground in all meanings of it. She's to be their new project. They'll unlock her emotions, they say. You'll be able to dream, they say.

They say a lot of things.

Amy says they won't be found, and Morgan will be safe, that Lee could be, too. Lee could do whatever she wanted, in fact. They'll all support her. Ted says that they can help each other, and this is really for the best. A penitent Skip explains he's very good at computers and erased their identities and backgrounds, even from the company. Brenda frets that Lee should eat something, please. Darren does a simple nod when he sees her non-reaction at his entrance.

The one that surprises her is Kathy Grieff.

Both eyes fine and whole, Kathy explains they had to lure with both finesse and specifics to get their target--a specific risk management consultant. The big boss' pet to be unleashed at his will. "You'll no longer be a pet, Lee. Never again."

Morgan visits when the others aren't there. She sits, waits. Sometimes she draws or reads, but there she sits, her presence a constant. Lee admires the patience she sees in Morgan, a being with high emotions. That is, admiration would be the feeling if she could admire and not just file it away as useful for interrogations or future directives.

Lee leaves the coffee there in the panel for three days before she recognizes she needs sustenance to continue to function. She wants to continue to function. She stands, grabs it, and drains it. It's cold and flavorless, but more than that, it's a signal.

She'll go along for awhile. What else is there to do?

Morgan comes in a few moments later, and smiles at her. "It's a start, Lee."

The glass slides up. She's allowed to go. The captured and their first step of freedom.

She wanders hallways, Morgan beside her, mapping all the turns in her mind, all the various doors and light fixtures, what can be used and what can be ignored. Codes for doors, which way locks turn.

She passes a room where they're all gathered. They've just finished a meal. Dr. Ziegler and Dr. Cheng--Lui--excuse themselves, head to lead Morgan and Lee to yet another room.

Dr. Ziegler has prepared a presentation for her. If she were one to roll her eyes, that's what she'd be doing, but she's not. She instead listens attentively, asking questions that make the man light up. She could almost classify his need for validation as charming, as it's also what drives him, and the company appreciates driven individuals.

She pauses. She realizes she's driven, not by her wants, but by the company's directives. Is that what these people want to free her from? Does she _want_ enough that she can be driven?

Her directives don't cover her own drive.

As Morgan walks her back to her cell, now with a bed and the glass still lifted, Lee asks her, "What drives you, Morgan?"

Morgan smiles. "Breath, harmony, Skip's crab cakes, the wind in the trees. Many things or one thing can drive anyone. Right now, I want to help you."

In Lee's mind, it's enough of a non-answer that it leaves her frustrated, as if the answer is almost there, and Morgan has it and is hiding it.

"Our hands are _our_ hands. They belong to no one else." Morgan says, holds her hands out in front of her, turns them over, and looks at Lee.

Lee begins to understand.


End file.
